EDUCATION (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Explanation: Innate ideas are part of Innatism philosophical doctrine that states that the mind is born with ideas, and not with a blank slate at birth. John Locke in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding gives a brief explanation about a child’s mind. According to him, a child mind is a blank slate or tabula rasa.

Detailed explanation-2: -Even though John Locke rejected the theory of innate idea, he somehow falls into a kind of contradiction. According to him, all the ideas come from sensation. John Locke thinks that at the birth, the mind is empty as a white paper. Through our senses ideas are conveyed into the mind.

Detailed explanation-3: -Children are born with minds as blank as slates, but they have natural inclinations which include personalities, likes and dislikes. For Locke, educating children, then, entails instructing their minds and molding their natural tendencies.

Detailed explanation-4: -By rejecting the existence of innate ideas, Locke tries to prove that before receiving ideas mind remains passive but when mind receives ideas it becomes active. Locke argues that we can never really form a complete picture of an object in our minds that matches the object itself as it really is in the material world.

Detailed explanation-5: -According to Locke, any ideas in the mind are either actual perceptions or are formed from memories of previous perceptions. If there were any innate ideas in the mind, then they would have to be memories of previous perceptions.